If anybody had ‘Donald Trump shares video of supporters yelling “white power” at protesters’ on their 2020 bingo cards, it’s time to mark that square off. That is a thing that happened. In a rare move, Trump deleted the tweet and a spokesperson claimed he had no idea what he was sharing, but take that with a trillion grains of salt.
Trump retweeted the video over the weekend, which showed rival protesters in Florida yelling at each another. When one of the anti-Trump protesters told the pro-Trump group they were racist, the Trump supporter responded by throwing up a fist and yelling, “White power”.
Here’s the video:
https://twitter.com/DanielNewman/status/1277285058546720769
Trump shared the clip with a message of thanks to his supporters – a.k.a. the ones yelling “white power” in the video.
“Thank you to the great people of The Villages,” he said, referring to a Florida retirement home.
He was rebuked by the only Black Republican in the Senate, Tim Scott, who told CNN’s State of the Union program that Trump’s actions were “indefensible”.
“It was so profanity-laced, the entire thing was offensive — certainly the comment about the white power was offensive,” Scott said.
“It’s indefensible. We should take it down.”
“He should not have retweeted and he should just take it down… It is indefensible,” GOP Sen. Tim Scott reacts to the video President Trump shared of a man driving a golf cart with Trump campaign posters, chanting “white power.” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/qF6lh7QjWv pic.twitter.com/tUwQwYv1An
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 28, 2020
Democrats were also quick to slam Trump, with Democratic hopeful Joe Biden likening it to Trump’s “very fine people” comments about the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
Today the President shared a video of people shouting “white power” and said they were “great.” Just like he did after Charlottesville.
We’re in a battle for the soul of the nation — and the President has picked a side. But make no mistake: it’s a battle we will win.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 28, 2020
Later, the tweet was deleted from Trump’s account, with a White House spokesperson denying Trump knew what he was sharing.
“He did not hear the one statement made on the video,” spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement.
“What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”
Ah, of course.
